19 Ways to Feng Shui Your Dorm Room or Apartment

The ancient Chinese tradition of feng shui can mostly be boiled down to trying to balance your home's energy intentionally to create good fortune and health in your life. But what happens when you go away to college and want to do the same at your new home away from home?

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July 09, 2021

By: Maria Conti and Erica Reitman

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Energize with Animal Prints

What’s black, white and red all over? This drool-worthy, zebra-lined bookcase brimming with feng shui style. Copy the look to usher abundance, protection and luxury into your dorm room with exotic, animal print accessories. Leopard and zebra prints fall under the feng shui fire element along with red, orange and burgundy hues. Incorporating these fire elements in your space will encourage positive transformation and make a bold statement in your design.

See More Photos: Is Zebra Having a Moment?

Protection + Prosperity

Use foo dogs and a bowl of nine lemons to pack your dorm room with positive energy and protection, aplenty. Foo dogs are ancient Chinese symbols for protection and have been used in pairs to guard temple and home entryways for centuries. A bowl of nine lemons combine feng shui’s sacred number nine, which represents accomplishment and personal growth, with lemons’ powerful symbolism of health and prosperity to yield an accent that clears energy and makes way for fortune throughout the home.

From: James Farmer

Solid Advice

Make the most of your shared bedroom by implementing feng shui principles for soothing, sound sleep. Position beds in a command position, with the headboard flush against a solid wall in indirect eyeline of the door. Use a solid, upholstered or wooden headboard to promote protection and support through the night and outfit the beds in neutral bedding to promote calm in the space.

From: Morgan Motsinger

Auspicious Arrangement

Pretty-up your desk, coffee table or nightstand with this auspicious DIY arrangement. Orchids are among the best-loved blooms in feng shui for their believed ability to enhance fortune, grace and spiritual expansion.

See More Photos: How to Arrange Grocery Store Orchids Like a Pro (and Keep Them Alive)

Lucky Bamboo

Encourage personal growth, harmony, adaptability and good fortune throughout your school year with a little help from a feng-shui-favorite: bamboo! Add a potted bamboo plant to your windowsill, use a bamboo chair for your desk or display a vibrant print above your nightstand or kitchenette for a daily reminder that luck in on your side.

From: Justin DiPiero

Cut the Clutter

Feng shui believes that clutter brings distracting and negative energy into the home. Eliminate clutter in your dorm room and aim for a modern, minimalist design to allow room for focus and positivity to flow into your life. This living and dining area features a mix of earth and metal elemental hues that are ideal for dorm rooms because, together, these colors usher stability, nourishment, clarity and efficiency into a design.

From: Todd Davis

Embrace Elephants

Elephants are revered as signs of protection, wisdom and good luck in feng shui. When an elephant has its trunk up like this one, it's meant to bring good fortune to your space. Display a trunk-up elephant on your dorm room desk to set yourself up for successful studies and keep you company during your inevitable all-nighters.

Step-by-Step Shelving: DIY Ladder Shelf

Find Flexibility + Fortune

Lean into the magic of feng shui’s wood elements by adding a wooden tray and petite plant to your sink vanity, coffee table or dorm desk. Living plants and wood (along with brown and green hues) represent new beginnings, fresh growth, vibrant health, flexibility and fortune.

From: Pure Design Interiors

Balancing Act

This contemporary corner balances feng shui’s metal, earth, wood and water elements to create a space ideal for productive and peaceful college living. The gray furnishings encourage efficiency and eliminate distractions, the teal wallpaper invites tranquility and the lucky bamboo palm plant brings growth and prosperity.

From: Justin DiPiero

Bring Luck to Your Entry

Buddhas are used to bring good luck, abundance, happiness, success and good health. Want some more of that in your room? One of the best spots for your Buddha is by the front door, so you can see it every time you come and go and use that energy to balance you out both in your space and outside in the world.

From: Caitlin McCarthy Designs

Calming Crystals

Some feng shui practices are almost 6,000 years old, so many of these principles have been fine-tuned over the years. Crystals have always been present in the feng shui arsenal and are often used in spaces to bring about healing and protection. This gorgeous amethyst crystal is thought to bring about calm, balance and peace. If you happen to have college roommates who bring, well, the opposite of that, then you need some crystals in your life.

From: Caitlin Murray

Command the Room

Empower your shared space by arranging your sofa, chairs and desk in feng shui’s “command position”. The command position calls for furniture to face the door without being in direct line with said door. This arrangement is believed to put you in the best position to handle the many trials, tribulations and all-nighter study sessions that college life throws your way. Need inspiration for taking command of a small space? Take notes from this petite pad by Maureen Stevens. The lounge area and desk chair indirectly face the door and Steven incorporates a mix of feng shui elements throughout the design to promote calm, precision and renewal.

From: Maureen Stevens

Stimulating Style

According to feng shui, the color red has the power to infuse passion and enthusiasm into a space. The fiery hue is highly stimulating so it's best used in a shared living area or workspace and sparingly in sleeping quarters. Drape a ruby throw blanket over your futon to invite excitement and warmth to your dorm design. Bonus? In Chinese culture, red is also the color of luck and happiness, so we predict a touch of red on your desk will help you get straight A’s, too.

From: Lauren Rubin Architecture

Horsepower

Success, fame (Insta fame counts, too), freedom and speed are all associated with the horse symbol in feng shui. A handsome pair of marble bookends would make a great addition to your bookshelf or desk. If you want to go all-in on the success and fame thing, snap up a couple of them.

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Higher Learning

The bad news? Dorm rooms are notoriously tight on space. The good news? You can make the most of your limited square footage by applying our favorite, storage-savvy feng shui principle: vertical shelving. It is believed that using floating shelves or a wooden, open bookcase like the one pictured above positively impacts the space by moving energy upward. Creating this rising energy in your dorm room will bring uplifting, transformative, and refreshing spirit to your daily life. Pro tip: keep your bookcase in your living or work area and avoid storing schoolbooks near sleeping quarters. Doing so ensures you maintain a soothing, distraction-free space to catch z’s and decompress after studies.

From: Amy Elbaum

Dream-Easy Drapes

Between study sessions and social obligations, a solid eight-hours can be difficult to come by during your collegiate years. Set yourself up for your most successful sleep possible by installing room-darkening window treatments in your dorm room. According to feng shui principles, it is critical to have drapes or blinds that close completely and shield exterior light and energy during the night to ensure restful, restorative sleep. Avoid stimulating or dark hues at all costs and be sure to tie back your drapes each morning to welcome the natural light back into your dorm throughout the day.

From: Kandrac & Kole Interior Designs, Inc.

Good Vibes Only

Ward off negativity and protect your personal bubble with an evil eye charm. The evil eye is an ancient symbol used in feng shui for protection against negative influences, harmful energy and general malintent. Place an evil eye print at your dorm entry to keep negativity out of the space or place an evil eye charm on your bedside table to serve as a shield against bad dreams and promote restful sleep.

From: Caitlin Murray

Dragon Desk-mate

Dragons are another go-to symbol in the practice of feng shui. They're associated with water and are often thought of as symbols of abundant life, strength and prosperity. Bonus? Dragons are believed to invite opportunity, wealth and power into your space and can be extra-effective if you use them in your office, or in the case of your dorm room, near your desk. This gilded wallpaper packs a double punch of productive energy into this space with a slew of powerful dragons and a metallic finish that promotes clarity, concentration and efficiency. Install a similar (but removable!) wallpaper near your workspace to reap the same benefits throughout the school year.

From: Allison Lind

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Mirrors are treasured in feng shui design because they are said to ignite expansion, invite nature in and activate energy within a room. That said, thoughtful placement is paramount to yielding a positive impact on your dorm room design. Avoid hanging mirrors in your sleeping quarters and do not hang a mirror that reflects your front door. Instead, copy this lively lounge and use a mirror to energize your shared living area. Display a mirror across from your dorm window to reflect the view of the quad below or pop it on a wall that’s near your entryway but does not reflect the dorm door.